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Perfect Cornering Posture

5K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Fly-Sig 
#1 ·
#4 ·
Didn’t watch the video, but if you’re reading this, you should sign up for a track day.
No, it’s not a race.
Yes, it’s on a race track.
Yes, you can ride your Versys.
Yes, you’ll need full gear, but you should be riding on the street with that anyways.
Yes, you’ll learn a ton about riding and cornering.
Yes, you’ll have a ton of fun.
 
#6 · (Edited)
You should watch the vid. The most efficient street riding posture is significantly different than racing style on a GP type bike. The guy explains it quite well. I had not seen anything like this before.

You are right about track days, lots of fun.
 
#7 ·
The science and technique of turning a motorcycle with control is probably the most important thing to try and master for the average rider.It is worth constantly studying all thats out there on the subject and experiment, theres lots. Some of it is how good your sense of balance is without even being on a bike and as you age your sense of balance diminishes. The Versys is tall and with a full tank of gas in the 2015 650 sometimes tricky at the end of a day ride when tired I found initially. Lowering helped. And of course the great leaning vs. counter-steering debate. This year was my conscious effort to use counter-steering on twisties and such and Im liking the feeling of staying with the bike more. I dont race but try to ride smooth and with controlled speed. Mixing leaning in with countersteering is a whole other thing, even a little lean will mean alot. Some motorcycle tutorials say that we do both instinctivly from our days as kids on bicycles. Im also a life-long avid bicycle rider,road and mountain bikes so this part interested me a lot.I have a well powered electric mountain bike now so I can ride up the local downhill trails with power and down without. And this fall Ive noticed Im a lot better rider on the trails now with the powered mountain bike. Im going to say my understanding and use of counter-steering and this instinctive control of my balance has helped me a lot. Of course though,,when Im coming back on the Sea to Sky highway from Whistler at dusk on the Versys, counter-steering highway twisties at 120kph the crotch rockets blow by me at 200,full body leaning. Each their own! I can see now that I will be working on controlled turning for the rest of my riding days,its a skill that needs constant inspection and practice.
 
#10 ·
Amen to that. I am always on the look out for contamination on the road surface. Sudden crap in the corner may result in having to change your line mid corner which can really get your attention.

On a couple of my favorite road sections I will make a run at medium speed to check the condition of the surface, then turn around and run opposite direction now knowing things are clean. Sometimes I will do this a couple of times before soldiering on.

The tough ones are shaded corners early or late in the day. I just slow way down in these situations. Better safe than sorry.

Keep it on the rubber fellas!
 
#12 ·
Saw that video a couple weeks ago. I've already known for awhile that upper body position is more important than sliding your butt off the seat (I find the V650 seat isn't the easiest to slide off of anyway). The V650 can carry some amazingly good corner speeds with this technique, bad super sport riders will actually end up holding you up (around corners at least, and even on corner exit on a 600 that is out of its powerband).

Another good YouTuber for riding technique videos is Mikael Sedlacek, he does videos on both road and track riding, you also get to hear the wonderful soundtrack of his Tuono in many of his videos.

 
#14 ·
Interesting videos guys, thanks for posting them.

As a life long skier, riding seems very much like skiing to me. The image of turning the jacket zipper towards where I want the bike to turn makes a lot of sense. Counter steering still doesn't feel like what I am doing though I know it is what is happening. I think in terms of weighting or pressure, not turning the handlebars. I push into the turn with the inside hand, and simultaneously press into the tank with the outside knee. That's for carving around turns at speed.
 
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